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Zell Says He Plans to Keep L.A. Times

Publication Date:

April 06, 2007

Source:

San Jose Mercury News

Author:

Troy Wolverton

The San Jose Mercury News reports on Sam Zell's speech at Stanford Law. Zell, chairman of the board of Equity International, spoke to a packed crowd about the role of governance in the public equity markets:

"While Zell's deal to buy Tribune may have been the topic du jour, it was not the focus of his appearance. Instead, his speech, which was sponsored by Stanford's Rock Center for Corporate Governance, centered on his perspective on the role of directors in corporate America and his call to revamp the Sarbanes-Oxley law...Zell painted a picture of widespread problems with chummy, insular boards and a lack of transparency in how executives are compensated and how the companies are run. 'We play a lot of games of `gotcha' in corporate America. We use obfuscation instead of reality,' he said, adding, 'I don't understand why it has to be that way.'"